Thread by @DrEricDing

⚠️AIRBORNE >6 FEET / 2 METERS! The CDC finally acknowledged #SARSCoV2 has major transmission via airborne aerosols beyond 6 feet / 2 meters, not just close contact. The CDC/WHO & airborne deniers are a year late—and negligently endangered many. #COVID19 🧵
nytimes.com/2021/05/07/hea…

2) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now states explicitly — in large, bold lettering — that airborne virus can be inhaled even when one is more than six feet away from an infected individual. cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…

3) The new language, posted online, is a change from the agency’s previous position that most infections were acquired through “close contact, not airborne transmission.”

4) “As the pandemic unfolded last year, infectious disease experts warned for months that both the C.D.C. and the World Health Organization were overlooking research that strongly suggested the coronavirus traveled aloft in small, airborne particles.”

5) “Several scientists on Friday welcomed the agency’s scrapping of the term “close contact,” which they criticized as vague and said did not necessarily capture the nuances of aerosol transmission.

6) “C.D.C. has now caught up to the latest scientific evidence, and they’ve gotten rid of some old problematic terms and thinking about how transmission occurs,” said Linsey Marr, an aerosol expert at Virginia Tech.

7) The new focus underscores the need for the federal @OSHA_DOL to issue standards for employers to address potential hazards in the workplace.

“They hadn’t talked much about aerosols and were more focused on droplets,” said David Michaels, form head of OSHA for Obama WH.

8) He and other researchers expressed concern that the C.D.C. has not yet strengthened its recommendations on preventing exposure to aerosolized virus.
The new information has significant implications for indoor environments, and workplaces in particular, Dr. Michaels said.

9) “Virus-laden particles “maintain their airborne properties for hours, and they accumulate in a room that doesn’t have good ventilation.”

Here is the video I often share that the coronavirus is persistent and stable in air for many hours.
#COVID19

10) My video on masks and aerosols last year… Mask and airborne science compilation video

11) Masks and aerosols demo.

12) “Until we recognise that #COVID19 is airborne we are setting ourselves up for repeated failure”

#COVIDisAirborne

13) Anyone remember this choir outbreak? I sure do. One person infected 87% of everyone in the choir room.

Checks date of the study— May 15 2020!!!

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1260436646882934786

14) That said, while CDC update is good, CDC left out a few things. This letter penned by major aerosol scientists point out the CDC’s accompanying editorial still misleading, and will “lead people to continue to think that maintaining distance is sufficient”.

HT @kprather88

15) March 31 2020 — Dr Tedros said it was airborne. That’s well over 13 months ago. I’m told people internal inside WHO forced Dr Tedros to walk it back.

I want to know who the heck made him do that. Let’s give Dr Tedros some credit he said what others didn’t want him to say.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1244945503139368963

16) Seriously, who inside the WHO made Dr Tedros walk back his comments that the coronavirus was airborne? He was right.

Yet the rest of WHO kept saying the virus doesn’t spread over 3-6 feet. We have receipts damnit.

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1244947216856424448

17) Here was the famous prescient letter by 239 aerosol Scientists who demanded the WHO acknowledge it is airborne and risky beyond 6 feet.

Some uptight people attacked me for saying in all capital letters. They can now be written into history books for endangering lives.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1279749506037317634

18) Now that aerosol transmission of the coronavirus is established, we need to disperse aerosols quickly. Key is ventilation. 🇯🇵 assumed it was airborne from the beginning. Here is how to ventilate your school classrooms if unable to open window. #COVID19

19) VENTILATION is key. Both ventilation and masks needed to reduce risk indoors. But most buildings not ventilated well enough.

20) if the virus is airborne, then we must ventilate and install air disinfection like HEPA filters. Comprehensive school air guidelines from CDC below ⬇️

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1365678603212648461

21) to be clear— Fauci did say the coronavirus is airborne. Though he didn’t specify how much infection, just that “there’s much more aerosol than we thought”.

Fauci also did outline stool as other fluids as pathways of carrying the virus.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1309829079152111616